Michael Todd - Biography - IMDb Michael Todd Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (3) | Trivia (15) | Personal Quotes (1) Overview (4) Mike Todd Mini Bio (1) Film producer Michael Todd was one of the major contributors to technical innovation in the film industry in the 1950s. Having worked with Fred Waller and Cinerama, he got tired of the three-panel format, left the company and tried to find the process for making "Cinerama coming from one hole". He joined forces with the American Optical Co. and developed a system using 65mm cine cameras at 30 fps and wide angle-photography (approx 150 degrees). The system was named Todd-AO after its inventors and was by far the best big-screen system ever seen, when it was introduced with Oklahoma! (1955). The Todd-AO prints used 70mm film with a 2.2:1 ratio.

Sound was six-track magnetic only, with five channels behind the screen and one surround channel, with Perspecta coding (a switch stereo device) The 70mm Todd-AO productions were premiered through Magna Theatre Corp., which also co-produced the pictures. Due to the non-standard speed, the first two Todd-AO pictures (the other was Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)) were parallel-shot in 35mm CinemaScope with 24 fps for general release, but for the third production, South Pacific (1958), the Todd-AO pictures were all shot in 24 fps. Todd was killed in a plane crash in 1958, but his system lived on, adopted as the wide superformat of 20th Century-Fox, which used it all through the 1960s. During that period a number of alternate processes developed, of which Superpanavision became the most used. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Stefan Adler Spouse (3) ( 14 February 1927 - 3 August 1946) (her death) (1 child) Trivia (15) Father of Michael Todd Jr.

Todd had previously (1946) produced an elaborate Broadway musical version of "Around the World in 80 Days." Despite mammoth production values, a Cole Porter score and a cast headed by Orson Welles as Phineas Fogg, it was a notorious, costly failure, losing nearly all of the money invested in it. Father, with Elizabeth Taylor , of daughter Liza Todd . Killed, along with journalist Art Cohn , when his private plane went down in a blizzard just outside of Albequerque, New Mexico. The plane's ironic name was "The Lucky Liz". In 1957, to celebrate the one-year anniversary of his Oscar-winning film Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), Todd staged an elaborate party at Madison Square Garden for his then-wife Elizabeth Taylor and hundreds of guests. The evening eventually deteriorated into a giant food fight. The party was treated as a serious news event by CBS, which sent Walter Cronkite to cover it. The next day newspaper critics tore the event to shreds. It became what Cronkite considers the low point in his career. He was preparing a lavish film version of "Don Quixote" at the time of his death.

Todd's version was never made. The biography "The Nine Lives of Mike Todd" reveals that he briefly was suspected of murdering his first wife Bertha, who died mysteriously in 1946, freeing the way for Todd to marry his mistress, Joan Blondell . Blondell later claimed that Todd fleeced her. His biographer, Art Cohn , died with him in the plane crash that took Todd's life. The biography was nearly finished and was completed by Cohn's wife and published as "The Nine Lives of Mike Todd" in 1958. In the 1940s, stripper Gypsy Rose Lee fell in love with Todd, who was then famous as a Broadway theatrical impresario. Todd produced two Broadway shows starring Lee, "Star and Garter" and "The Naked Genius" (the latter of which was written by Lee). Gypsy married William Alexander Kirkland in 1942 in an attempt to make the already-married Todd jealous. They divorced in 1944.

His penultimate show was entitled "Michael Todd's Peep Show", running at the Winter Garden Theatre, from June 28, 1950 to February 24, 1951, for a total of 278 performances. The music and lyrics for this musical revue, which featured female nudity, were by 'Prince Chakrband Bhumibol', who became the King of Thailand! In Art Cohn 's posthumous biography of Todd, "The Nine Lives of Mike Todd", it is revealed that the naked girls featured in the show's mermaid sequence had difficulty getting the blue dye, used in the water, out of their pubic hair. Todd twice went bankrupt, once when he filed for bankruptcy for over $1 million as a young man and his construction business (which specialized in soundproofing Hollywood sound-stages, among other lines of business) folded during the Great Depression, and the second time around 1950, when his huge gambling losses and massive debts linked to his lavish lifestyle overwhelmed him.

He remained ensconced in a splendid Hudson Valley estate in Tarrytown, New York with his second wife Joan Blondell , living the high life and spending like a pasha, as his second bankruptcy suit wound its way through the federal court system. When creditors' objections threatened to land him in jail due to apparent fraud (Todd had destroyed evidence of his gambling debts so as not to implicate his friends), Todd withdrew the suit and agreed to pay back his creditors. Subsequently, Todd owned over three-quarters of the gross profits of Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), a spectacular that racked up over $20 million in rentals in its first release (approximately $135 million in 2005 terms), a huge sum for the time exceeded by very few films. Despite the fact that he was again rich, and richer than ever (worth about $7-8 million at the time of his death, or about $50 million in 2005 terms), many observers at the time predicted that the profligate Todd would manage to bankrupt himself a third time. He never got the chance, dying in a plane crash in 1958.

His widow, Elizabeth Taylor , still owns his share of the Oscar-winning film. He had committed himself to provide financial backing for Laurence Olivier 's most cherished project, a film of William Shakespeare 's "Macbeth", shortly before his fatal plane crash. But after Todd's death, the funding didn't come through and Olivier was forced to abandon the project. Todd's premature death wiped out his plans for two future films: "Don Quixote" and "The Man Who Would Be King.". His and Elizabeth Taylor's daughter Elizabeth Frances "Liza" was born by emergency c section six weeks early on August 6th 1957 weighing 4 lbs 14 oz. Personal Quotes (1) I've never been poor, only broke. Being poor is a frame of mind. Being broke is only a temporary situation. See also Kirk Douglas Missed Plane That Killed Elizabeth Taylor's Husband Mike Todd AP On- and offscreen, Kirk Douglas has always been known as a tough guy. The athletic former high school wrestler cemented that reputation playing roles like Scrappy Michael “Midge” Kelly in 1949’s Champion and the titular role in 1960’s Spartacus.

But the 98-year-old legend has also lived through his fair share of real-life scrapes over the years. In 1991, he narrowly survived a helicopter crash , which killed two people and left him and three others in the hospital. Then several years later, he managed to recover from a severe stroke that threatened to permanently damage his voice in 1996. After those brushes with death, it’s easy to see why Douglas found religion later in life. But in realm of divine intervention, one of his lesser-known escapes from catastrophe trumps all the rest. Back in 1958, Douglas and his wife Anne were living next door to Elizabeth Taylor and her husband, Academy Award-winning producer Mike Todd, in Palm Springs. “Mike asked me to go on his private plane with him, and we were going to stop and see Harry Truman and then go on to New York,” the actor tells PEOPLE, adding, “I was very excited.” Anne Buydens , to whom Douglas has been married for 61 years, had a bad feeling about trip. “When I told my wife [about the plane ride], she said, ‘I don’t want you to go,’ ” Douglas remembers.

“We had a big argument,” he says, and sure enough, his wife won out. Mad at his wife and disappointed about missing the flight, Douglas says he remembers, “We were driving and not talking to each other, so we turned the radio on.” When the radio clicked on, the announcer relayed the shocking news that Todd’s private plane, the Lucky Liz (named after Taylor), had crashed, killing everyone on board. VIDEO: Tough, Talented & Timeless: Kirk Douglass Star-Making Roles The twin-engine plane was overloaded and suffered an engine failure while flying in icy conditions at too high of an altitude, the Civil Aeronautics Board later concluded in its accident report . Douglas wasn’t the only celebrity who narrowly escaped the crash. Taylor was also set to fly with her husband that day, but Todd refused to take her along because she was suffering from a high fever. In a phone call made just hours before his death, the famed producer told a friend, “I just told [Taylor]: ‘Dammit, you’re staying home with that virus and that’s final,’ ” The Milwaukee Sentinel reported at the time.

Possibly in the same phone call, Todd pleaded with Douglas and another friend to join the flight for a game of gin rummy, insisting that the plane was safe. “Ah c’mon,” he reportedly said, joking, “It’s a good, safe plane. I wouldn’t let it crash. I’m taking along a picture of Elizabeth, and I wouldn’t let anything happen to her.” After hearing of her husband’s death, still heavily sedated and in a feverish haze, Taylor repeated over and over again, “I can’t believe it’s Mike,” according to the Sentinel. When Douglas heard the news, he and Anne immediately pulled their car over to the side of the road. “Why was I spared? I was so grateful,” Douglas tells PEOPLE. “My wife has saved my life many times.” The Spartacus actor also credits his wife with forcing him into intensive speech therapy when there seemed to be little hope of his regaining his voice after his stroke. After two months of hard work, Douglas was able to thank the audience for his honorary Academy Award that March. He later recounted his experience recovering from the ordeal in his memoir, My Stroke of Luck. Douglas has continued his writing, focusing now on his passion for poetry.

For his 98th birthday in December 2014, he released Life Could Be Verse, a collection of poetry, prose and photographs he accumulated throughout his extraordinary life. For more on Kirk Douglas, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now Show Full Article Mike Todd's Liz - A 1958 Tragedy - Cibola County Historical Society Cibola County Historical Society Mike Todd's 'Liz' - A 1958 Tragedy Posted: Friday, April 13, 2012 - Paul Milan, Historical Society - for the Cibola Beacon On March 22, 1958, a plane crash killed actor Mike Todd, the husband of Liz Taylor, 22 miles southwest of Grants in Cibola County. The Grants Beacon reported that city officials were swamped with calls after Todd was killed in a crash of his two-engine Lockheed Lodestar. The actor had become famous for his recent movie “Around the World in 80 days.” The location was two miles north of the Ice Caves, about one and one-quarter miles north of Highway 53.

Telephone calls to the Beacon, the radio station, and the Grants’ police station came from New York, Hollywood, Calif., and London, England. Liz Taylor called the Grants Police Station to verify the report and broke into hysterical sobs when told the news, according to media accounts. I was going to college in Mexico City and was spending the weekend with a family friend when I was told that Grants made the headlines in all the Mexican papers. I have a copy of a paper, the headline reads “Near Grants, New Mexico, MIKE TODD DIES IN PLANE CRASH.” The article reported that, “Mike Todd, multi-millionaire showman and husband of actress Elizabeth Taylor, was killed today when his private plane ‘iced up’ and crashed during a thunderstorm in mountains southwest of Grants, N.M. Screen-writer Art Cohn and two pilots died with the flamboyant 50-year-old producer in the flaming crash in New Mexico’s uranium-rich ‘badlands’ wilderness of volcanic rock.” The article mentioned that the trim little plane was named “The Liz”.

Its $13,500 interior was extremely lavish, including an oak conference table, a deep foam rubber couch, buffet bar, deep pile carpet, drapes, gold-bronze ashtrays and door knobs, a gold-tooled guest book and monogrammed towels. The toilet articles were engraved with “Liz” and “His”, as were the couple’s Rolls Royces. Jim Barber’s column, “Light of the Beacon” wrote that, “Mike Todd, a man with a good sense of humor, would have gotten some good laughs out of the goings-on hereabouts Saturday, if he hadn’t been dead from an airplane crash a few hours earlier. Take the Albuquerque mortuary that sent a hearse tearing out to Grants to pick up the remains, completely by-passing Tony Frkovich, the Grants mortician. That pleased Tony as much as the Grants State Bank would be if one of the huge Albuquerque banks parked a truck on one of Grants’ streets and started taking savings deposits and cashing checks. But the Albuquerque outfit had wasted its time.

Woody Thigpen, to whom fell the awful task of picking up the bits of bodies from the burned plane, hauled the remains of the four victims all the way to Albuquerque, thanks to some quick footwork by local officers. The discomfiture of the Albuquerque mortuary suited this column fine. Those birds-and include Gallup in this too-are as helpful to the Beacon in getting news of deaths of Grants area citizens as if they were doing business in Berlin. The flash of local pride, when an out-of-town mortuary was pushed ahead of local business, was pleasing. What this town needs is more local pride-more pride in its people and hometown services. A similar situation arose when DA Paul Robinson of Albuquerque found out – belatedly –that the crash victims were world-famous movie figures. He got on the phone and started throwing orders around about inquests and cops guarding the property, and then tore out to the scene in person. The laws had been complied with long before Robinson had even heard of the crash, in a normal, routine manner. Officers had been among the first on the scene, and J.P. Angelo Sakelares had already conducted an inquest.

To hear KOB-TV (Albuquerque) talk about it, the Todd crash was their property. KOB neglected to tell its listeners that its information came from the wire services who in turn were depending on newsmen in Grants, and other points. It would have been interesting sometime to see KOB news department try to cover a big news story like the Todd crash by itself - sitting on their collective fat behinds 102 miles away.” Lee Marmon told me that he and the Gottliebs from Cubero were one of the first to reach the scene and he still had pictures that no one has seen. Editor’s Note: Paul Milan, a longtime Cibola County resident, is a member of the Cibola County Historical Society. Posted at: Elizabeth Taylor - Mike Todd - by Richard Bassett - YouTube Elizabeth Taylor - Mike Todd - by Richard Bassett Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Uploaded on Jun 22, 2008 Mike Todd was one of the two great loves in the life of Dame Elizabeth Taylor. They met on June 30, 1956, married on February 2, 1957 and he sadly and tragically was killed in a plane crash on March 22, 1958...leaving a widow and a four month old daughter, Elizabeth Francis Todd, fatherless. Elizabeth Taylor's life changed when she met Mike Todd. In the words of famous 'New York Post Columnist', Liz Smith, "He (Todd) was bold and went for the brass ring and he taught Elizabeth to do the same thing. She was never the same after being with him". Mike was fearless. Elizabeth was fearless. I believing it was his influence on her that got her through the horrid time after his plane crash. He was feisty and it was this attribute that Elizabeth Taylor took with her, using it three decades later when she stood up to the USA Presidents....demanding money for AIDS research and patient care services. And she got it! This passion came from her short time she had with Mike Todd. He moved mountains.

Unfortunately, there was one mountain that he could not move but Elizabeth Taylor was more of a compassionate person for having loved him. Please honor Dame Elizabeth's passion for AIDS research and donate if you can. By Richard Bassett, 2008* Eddie Fisher dies; 5 marriages included Debbie Reynolds, Liz Taylor | The Seattle Times Eddie Fisher dies; 5 marriages included Debbie Reynolds, Liz Taylor Originally published September 23, 2010 at 10:45 pm Updated January 3, 2017 at 10:05 am In this 1959 photo, actress Elizabeth Taylor is seen with singer Eddie Fisher before their marriage. Eddie Fisher, whose huge fame as a pop singer was overshadowed by scandals ending his marriages to Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth ... Share story RAQUEL MARIA DILLON Associated Press Editor’s note: Eddie Fisher died Sept. 22, 2010. His daughter Carrie Fisher died Dec. 27, 2016. You can read her obituary here. On Dec. 28, 2016, Debbie Reynolds, Carrie’s mother and Eddie’s ex-wife, died.

You can read Reynolds’ obituary here. LOS ANGELES — Eddie Fisher, whose huge fame as a pop singer was overshadowed by scandals ending his marriages to Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor, has died. He was 82. His daughter, Tricia Leigh Fisher, of Los Angeles, told The Associated Press that Mr. Fisher died Wednesday night (Sept. 22, 2010) at his home in Berkeley of complications from hip surgery. “Late last evening the world lost a true America icon,” Mr. Fisher’s family said in a statement released by publicist British Reece. “One of the greatest voices of the century passed away. He was an extraordinary talent and a true mensch.” Most Read Stories Unlimited Digital Access. $1 for 4 weeks. The death was first reported by Hollywood website deadline.com . Mr. Fisher’s clear dramatic singing voice brought him a devoted following of teenage girls in the early 1950s.

He sold millions of records with 32 hit songs including “Thinking of You,” “Any Time,” “Oh, My Pa-pa,” “I’m Yours,” “Wish You Were Here,” “Lady of Spain” and “Count Your Blessings.” His fame was enhanced by his 1955 marriage to movie darling Debbie Reynolds — they were touted as “America’s favorite couple” — and the birth of two children. Their daughter Carrie Fisher became a film star herself in the first three “Star Wars” films as Princess Leia, and later as a best-selling author of “Postcards From the Edge” and other books. Carrie Fisher spent most of 2008 on the road with her autobiographical show “Wishful Drinking.” In an interview with The Associated Press, she told of singing with her father on stage in San Jose, Calif. Eddie Fisher was by then in a wheelchair and living in San Francisco. When Eddie Fisher’s best friend, producer Mike Todd, was killed in a 1958 plane crash, Mr. Fisher comforted the widow, Elizabeth Taylor. Amid sensationalist headlines, Mr. Fisher divorced Reynolds and married Taylor in 1959.

The Fisher-Taylor marriage lasted only five years. She fell in love with co-star Richard Burton during the Rome filming of “Cleopatra,” divorced Mr. Fisher and married Burton in one of the great entertainment-world scandals of the 20th century. Mr. Fisher’s career never recovered from the notoriety. He married actress Connie Stevens, and they had two daughters. Another divorce followed. He married twice more. Edwin Jack Fisher was born Aug. 10, 1928, in Philadelphia, one of seven children of a Jewish grocer. At 15, he was singing on Philadelphia radio. After moving to New York, Mr. Fisher was adopted as a protègè by comedian Eddie Cantor, who helped the young singer become a star in radio, television and records. After getting out of the Army in 1953 after a two-year hitch, hit records, his own TV show and the headlined marriage to Reynolds made Mr. Fisher a top star.

The couple costarred in a 1956 romantic comedy, “Bundle of Joy.” In 1960 he played a role in “Butterfield 8,” for which Taylor won an Academy Award. But that film marked the end of his movie career. After being discarded by Taylor, Mr. Fisher became the butt of comedians’ jokes. He began relying on drugs to get through performances, and his bookings dwindled. He later said he had made and spent $20 million during his heyday, and much of it went to gambling and drugs. In 1983, Mr. Fisher attempted a full-scale comeback. But his old fans had been turned off by the scandals, and the younger generation had been turned on by rock. The tour was unsuccessful.

He had added to his notoriety that year with an autobiography, “Eddie: My Life, My Loves.” Of his first three marriages, he wrote he had been bullied into marriage with Reynolds, whom he didn’t know well; became nursemaid as well as husband to Taylor, and was reluctant to marry Connie Stevens but she was pregnant and he “did the proper thing.” Another autobiography, “Been There, Done That,” published in 1999, was even more searing. He called Reynolds “self-centered, totally driven, insecure, untruthful, phony.” He claimed he abandoned his career during the Taylor marriage because he was too busy taking her to emergency rooms and cleaning up after her pets and children. Both ex-wives were furious, and Carrie Fisher threatened to change her name to Reynolds. At 47, Mr. Fisher married a 21-year-old beauty queen, Terry Richard. The marriage ended after 10 months. His fifth marriage, to Betty Lin, a Chinese-born businesswoman, lasted longer than any of the others. Mr. Fisher had two children with Reynolds: Carrie and Todd; and two girls with Stevens: Joely and Tricia.

RAQUEL MARIA DILLON Eddie Fisher, former husband of Elizabeth Taylor, dies - Telegraph Music news Eddie Fisher, former husband of Elizabeth Taylor, dies Eddie Fisher, whose huge fame as a 1950s pop singer was overshadowed by his marriages to actresses Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor, has died aged 82. The Fisher-Taylor marriage lasted only five years. She fell in love with co-star Richard Burton during the Rome filming of 'Cleopatra' Photo: AP 6:44AM BST 24 Sep 2010 Fisher died on Wednesday night at his home in Berkeley of complications from hip surgery. "Late last evening the world lost a true America icon," Fisher's family said in a statement. "One of the greatest voices of the century passed away. He was an extraordinary talent and a true mensch." Fisher's clear dramatic singing voice brought him a devoted following of teenage girls in the early 1950s.

He sold millions of records with 32 hit songs including "Thinking of You," "Any Time," "Oh, My Pa-pa," "I'm Yours," "Wish You Were Here," "Lady of Spain" and "Count Your Blessings." Related Articles Eddie Fisher in pictures 24 Sep 2010 His fame was enhanced by his 1955 marriage to movie darling Debbie Reynolds — they were touted as "America's favourite couple" — and the birth of two children. Their daughter Carrie Fisher became a film star herself in the first three "Star Wars" films as Princess Leia, and later as a best-selling author of "Postcards From the Edge" and other books. When Eddie Fisher's best friend, producer Mike Todd, was killed in a 1958 plane crash, Fisher comforted the widow, Elizabeth Taylor. Amid sensationalist headlines, Fisher divorced Reynolds and married Taylor in 1959. The Fisher-Taylor marriage lasted only five years. She fell in love with co-star Richard Burton during the Rome filming of "Cleopatra," divorced Fisher and married Burton in one of the great entertainment world scandals of the 20th century.

After being discarded by Taylor, Fisher became the butt of comedians' jokes. He began relying on drugs to get through performances, and his bookings dwindled. He later said he had made and spent $20 million during his heyday, and much of it went to gambling and drugs. Fisher's career never recovered from the notoriety. He married actress Connie Stevens, and they had two daughters. Another divorce followed. He married twice more. He had added to his notoriety with an autobiography, "Eddie: My Life, My Loves." Of his first three marriages, he wrote he had been bullied into marriage with Reynolds, whom he didn't know well; became nursemaid as well as husband to Taylor, and was reluctant to marry Connie Stevens but she was pregnant and he "did the proper thing". Another autobiography, "Been There, Done That," published in 1999, was even more searing. He called Reynolds "self-centered, totally driven, insecure, untruthful, phoney." He claimed he abandoned his career during the Taylor marriage because he was too busy taking her to emergency rooms and cleaning up after her pets, children and servants.

Both ex-wives were furious, and Carrie Fisher threatened to change her name to Reynolds. At 47, Fisher married a 21-year-old beauty queen, Terry Richard. The marriage ended after 10 months. His fifth marriage, to Betty Lin, a Chinese-born businesswoman, lasted longer than any of the others. Fisher had two children with Reynolds: Carrie and Todd; and two girls with Stevens: Joely and Tricia. He was born on August 10, 1928, in Philadelphia, one of seven children of a Jewish grocer. Dame Elizabeth Taylor - Telegraph Celebrity Obituaries Dame Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Taylor, who died on March 23 aged 79, made more than 50 films, won two Oscars, was a grandmother at 39 and was married eight times to seven men.

Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra Photo: ALLSTAR Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, 1964 Photo: REX FEATURES Elizabeth Taylor in The VIPs (1963) Photo: MOVIESTORE COLLECTION Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Liz Taylor and Richard Burton in Cleopatra Photo: 20th Century Fox Elizabeth Taylor in Last Time I Saw Paris, 1955 Photo: REX FEATURES 1:57PM GMT 23 Mar 2011 Statistics related to her lifestyle filled more column inches in the press than assessments of her acting ability. Her $1 million fee for appearing in Cleopatra (1963) set a new record at the time, as did the film’s ultimate $37 million budget. It was a moot point whether the cost of the diamonds bestowed upon her by her fifth (and sixth) husband, Richard Burton (they divorced and remarried), notched up more millions than they weighed in carats. A woman of exceptional physical beauty, she grew into the most photographed Hollywood film star of all. Other love goddesses, such as Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner and Ava Gardner, were not in her league in terms of public and press attention.

Everything she did was news. Her career was long and many-stranded. She began as a child star and, with Natalie Wood and Judy Garland, shared the rare distinction of enjoying even greater fame as an adult. Her affair with, and subsequent marriage to, Richard Burton catapulted her into world headlines and gave her waning popularity a fillip just when it was needed. With Burton she embarked on a long series of films which, at least at first, became box-office hits thanks to curiosity alone, regardless of their quality. In later life she moved into television and cameo roles, barely needing to act. Her mere presence at a party or at one of her multiple weddings was sufficient to command attention. She was renowned for gaining weight, for losing it, for alcoholism, drug dependency, detoxification and — throughout her life — for a succession of often life-threatening ailments. Ulcers, amoebic dysentery, bursitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, brain tumours — she had them all. And survived, every time — until now. She underwent more than 30 operations, once after nearly choking on a chicken bone.

To her credit, she was a tireless fund-raiser on behalf of Aids and cancer research and a generous supporter of Jewish and Israeli causes following her conversion from Christian Science to Judaism, the religion of her third husband, Mike Todd. This resulted in her films being banned in many Arab countries. Related Articles Elizabeth Taylor's life and loves 23 Mar 2011 As an actress, she improved with practice. Most of her early work, as a child star and young teenager, was indifferent, relying on giant close-ups of her dazzling beauty and violet eyes. In 1951, however, under the direction of George Stevens in A Place in the Sun, she gave a performance of some subtlety, hinting at better things to come. Critics found her acting aspirations easy to mock. Joseph L Mankiewicz, who directed her in the Tennessee Williams adaptation Suddenly Last Summer (1959), was congratulated on extracting from her a mediocre performance, “which is a definite step up in her dramatic career”. The British theatre critic Jack Tinker greeted her attempt to conquer the West End with the observation that “she teeters on the brink of competence”. Yet in the right part she could be effective.

She registered strongly in Tennessee Williams’s Cat on A Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Suddenly Last Summer, and won her first Oscar in 1960, for Butterfield 8, in which she played a call girl. It was not her best work, and even she conceded that it was largely a sympathy award since she had nearly died of pneumonia — and lost a husband in a plane crash — the previous year. Nevertheless, it was a solid performance, and in 1966 she won a second Oscar, this time better deserved, for the film of Edward Albee’s play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It was her finest work — a splendidly blowsy, foul-mouthed performance for which she added several pounds to accentuate her overripe figure. Marrying (and getting divorced) became almost a second career, and became her principal claim to fame. She was still almost a child when she married Conrad (Nicky) Hilton, heir to the hotel fortune, in 1951. It was publicised as a marriage made in heaven but lasted only a few months. Subsequent evidence suggests that he beat her even on their honeymoon.

Her second marriage, in 1952, was to the debonair English actor Michael Wilding, then 40 years old and twice her age. This lasted five years and was followed immediately by a brief marriage to the movie mogul Mike Todd, who was killed in a plane crash in 1958; contracted as she was to the studio, she was allowed a week off and then compelled to finish filming Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The singer Eddie Fisher had been best man at her wedding to Todd and rushed to console her in her grief. The following year they married, earning Elizabeth Taylor a reputation in some quarters as a home-wrecker, since Fisher had been married through much of this period to Debbie Reynolds. For her part, Elizabeth Taylor strongly denied the charge. “I’m not taking anything away from Debbie Reynolds,” she insisted, “because she never really had it.” Fisher lasted no longer than his predecessors. In a much-reported affair during the making of Cleopatra in 1963, she left him for her co-star Richard Burton, who became the most durable of all her husbands.

They were initially married for 10 years, divorced in 1974, remarried in the following year and divorced for good in 1976. She had two more husbands — the politician John W Warner, to whom she was married between 1976 and 1982, and the former truck driver Larry Fortensky, 20 years her junior, whom she had met when they were both attending a treatment centre for drink and drug abuse. They married in 1991 (when she had just turned 60) at a ranch owned by her close friend Michael Jackson, and divorced in 1996. “I’m not marrying again,” she vowed. “I promise.” She was born Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor on February 27 1932 in London. Her mother had been an actress before her marriage under the stage name Sara Sothern, while her father, who had been born in Kansas, had come to England as a buyer for his uncle, a successful St Louis art dealer. Later he established his own gallery in Old Bond Street. They lived in Hampstead, where Elizabeth attended a co-educational private school and took dancing lessons from Madame Vacani.

She had made her stage debut at the age of three, dancing a recital before members of the Royal family at the London Hippodrome. Her godfather, Victor Cazalet, also encouraged her to take up riding, presenting her with a pony which she was allowed to exercise on his estate in Kent. This proved invaluable practice for one of her earliest film roles, in National Velvet (1944). Shortly before the Second World War the family returned to America, settling in Pasadena and later in Beverly Hills. Elizabeth’s mother supported her daughter in her film ambitions, and in 1941 she landed a one-year contract with Universal, which used her only once, in a small part in There’s One Born Every Minute (1942). Elizabeth’s father, however, became friendly with the MGM producer Sam Marx, with whom he shared air-raid warden duties. Marx was seeking a little girl to play the granddaughter of an English lord in Lassie Come Home (1943) and agreed to give Elizabeth a test. It was a notable success and she got the part.

Still a child, she had to complete her education at MGM’s own school, and in 1950 she obtained her diploma from the University High School in Hollywood. MGM used her skilfully as a child actress, both in its own films — such as National Velvet, in which she played the first little girl ever to win the Grand National as a jockey, and Courage of Lassie (1946), a sequel to Lassie Come Home — and in those for which she was lent to other studios, such as Twentieth Century-Fox’s Jane Eyre, in which she played Jane’s tragic friend Helen Burns. Throughout the late 1940s she gradually matured on screen, receiving her first on-screen kiss (from Jimmy Lydon) in Life with Father (1947), playing Amy in the 1949 version of Little Women, and graduating to adult roles in Conspirator (1950), a Cold War thriller in which she played the wife of her namesake Robert Taylor. Capitalising on her engagement to Nicky Hilton, MGM shrewdly cast her in Father of the Bride (1950), as Spencer Tracy’s daughter.

It proved so successful that a sequel — Father’s Little Dividend, depicting the birth of Tracy’s first grandchild — was made the following year with the same cast. For A Place in the Sun (1951), the George Stevens production based on Theodore Dreiser’s novel An American Tragedy, she was lent to Paramount. A powerful drama about a yuppie before his time who is caught between two different social milieux and pays for it with his life, it was one of the most celebrated pictures of its year and contained a love scene between Taylor and Montgomery Clift, dissolving from one giant close-up to the next, that has become a cinematic classic. Taylor’s performance, as the spoilt rich girl with whom Clift falls in love, earned the first favourable notices of her adult career. Well cast as the Jewish girl Rebecca in Ivanhoe (1952), her star was rising fast, and she was able to command a much-improved seven-year contract at $5,000 a week.

Highlights of this period included Elephant Walk (1954), again made for Paramount when the original star, Vivien Leigh, was forced to withdraw through illness; the Regency romance Beau Brummell (1954); and Giant (1956), her second appearance for George Stevens. In this film, she was required to age some 30 years from start to finish; her co-stars were James Dean (in his last screen role) and Rock Hudson, who became a personal friend. With Montgomery Clift she appeared in another epic, Raintree County (1957), though production was interrupted by a serious car accident in which Clift’s features were damaged and had to be partly reconstructed by plastic surgery. The crash happened outside Elizabeth Taylor’s house, and she was the first to reach him. After several minutes she managed to decipher his mumbled request: “Please take out my teeth.” With characteristic bravery, she pulled out the four lodged in his tongue. The ambulance took 45 minutes to arrive. Then followed her Tennessee Williams years, her Oscar for Butterfield 8 and the momentous meeting with Richard Burton during the shooting of Cleopatra. This was a famously troubled production.

She had not originally wanted the role (which was offered to Joan Collins) and asked for a record fee of $1 million only to try to put off the producers. Filming started in London but had to be suspended — after $5 million had been spent — when Miss Taylor fell ill and was admitted to the London Clinic. After she recovered, Twentieth Century Fox decided to scrap what had already been filmed, change the cast and director and start from scratch in Italy. Rex Harrison replaced Peter Finch as Caesar; Burton took over Antony from Stephen Boyd; and Joseph L Mankiewicz, who had directed Taylor in Suddenly Last Summer, took the helm. But as location work strung out and the running time lengthened to almost four hours, the budget rocketed to $37 million, nearly bringing Fox to its knees. Despite this fiasco, the liaison with Burton opened a new phase in Elizabeth Taylor’s career. They appeared constantly together — in lowbrow fare such as The VIPs (1963), The Sandpiper (1965) and Hammersmith Is Out (1972), as well as in highbrow literary ventures such as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Others in a literary vein included The Taming of the Shrew (1967), Dr Faustus and an adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel The Comedians (both 1967); another Tennessee Williams movie in 1968, based on his early work The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore but renamed Boom! for the screen; and, in 1971, a version of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood, for which she worked for no salary but a share of the profits. Her final collaboration with Burton was on a two-part television drama called Divorce His, Divorce Hers (1974). With the exception of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? none of these was a critical success, but many were box-office hits thanks to the apparently insatiable public appetite for anything pertaining to “the Burtons”. She made other, better films with distinguished casts and fine directors — John Huston’s film of Carson McCullers’s Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), for example, opposite Marlon Brando; and Joseph Losey’s Secret Ceremony, with Mia Farrow and Robert Mitchum. But they were commercial failures.

By this stage in her career, Taylor was a superstar only in harness with Burton. Much of her later film work was not well received. George Stevens, who had steered her through two of her earlier successes, A Place in the Sun and Giant, directed her again in his last film, a romantic drama called The Only Game in Town, with Warren Beatty, but lightning did not strike thrice. X, Y and Zee (1972), based on an Edna O’Brien novel, found more favour, but few had time for the thriller Night Watch or the soap opera Ash Wednesday (both 1973). Other films included an ill-starred Russian-American co-production, The Blue Bird (1976); a film of the Stephen Sondheim musical A Little Night Music (1977); a non-speaking cameo in the political thriller Winter Kills (1979); and a role in one of the Agatha Christie adaptations, The Mirror Crack’d (1980). Among her last screen appearances was as an opera singer in Franco Zeffirelli’s Young Toscanini (1980), which was launched at the Venice Film Festival but jeered off the screen and never released.

In 1981 Elizabeth Taylor made her Broadway debut in a revival of Lillian Hellman’s melodrama The Little Foxes, playing the scheming Regina Giddens, a role Bette Davis played in the 1941 film version. Reviews were mostly snooty, though the production subsequently toured to New Orleans, Los Angeles and London, where the limited run was cut short in 1982. A second Broadway venture, a 1983 revival of Noël Coward’s Private Lives opposite Richard Burton, from whom she was then divorced, ran for only 63 performances. Elizabeth Taylor was appointed DBE in 1999. In recent years she had been in poor health, but took a keen interest in her scent and jewellery lines. She was also one of Michael Jackson’s most vocal supporters in 2005 when he was accused, and acquitted, of sexually abusing a child. In December 2007 she and James Earl Jones gave a benefit performance of AR Gurney’s play Love Letters to raise money for her Aids foundation.

Elizabeth Taylor was mother to four children: two sons by Michael Wilding; a daughter by Mike Todd; and a handicapped German girl whom she adopted with Richard Burton. In recent years she had been close to Jason Winters. Local History: Co-pilot in 'Lucky Liz' plane crash buried in Vineland FacebookEmail Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest Local History: Co-pilot in 'Lucky Liz' plane crash buried in Vineland On March 22, 1958, movie producer Mike Todd lost his life when his leased private plane, a Lockheed Lodestar dubbed "Lucky Liz," crashed and burned in western New Mexico. Post to Facebook Local History: Co-pilot in 'Lucky Liz' plane crash buried in Vineland On March 22, 1958, movie producer Mike Todd lost his life when his leased private plane, a Lockheed Lodestar dubbed "Lucky Liz," crashed and burned in western New Mexico. Check out this story on thedailyjournal.com: CancelSend A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

Join the Conversation To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs Local History: Co-pilot in 'Lucky Liz' plane crash buried in Vineland Doug Fuhrmann, The Daily Journal Published 5:48 p.m. ET April 7, 2015 | Updated 8:10 a.m. ET April 8, 2015 Actress Elizabeth Taylor is seen with her husband producer Mike Todd in 1957. (Photo: AP) 1 CONNECT TWEET LINKEDIN COMMENTEMAILMORE On March 22, 1958, movie producer Mike Todd lost his life when his leased private plane, a Lockheed Lodestar dubbed "Lucky Liz," crashed and burned in western New Mexico. Todd, best known for his lavish 1956 production, "Around the World in Eighty Days," also had developed a widescreen process known as Todd-AO. At the time of his death, he was married to screen vixen Elizabeth Taylor, who reportedly was at home nursing an illness when the accident occurred. (Photo: Bud Rouse, AP) The crash killed all four aboard, bound for a testimonial dinner in Tulsa, Okla.

They were Todd, screenwriter Art Cohn, pilot Bill Verner and co-pilot Tom Barclay. Capturing the attention of the nation, the saga about to ensue had both a minor local and major regional connection. For Barclay, raised in Canada, was buried in Vineland a week after the crash, where his wife Olga returned to be with her family, living at Chestnut Avenue and Mill Road. (Photo: Harold K. Milks, AP) Having worked aboard the "Liz" for only a week before his death, he was put to rest in Siloam Cemetery. While only a footnote, the press, covering every movement of Taylor in the weeks following the tragedy, even reported that she sent flowers to Barclay's funeral in Vineland. At her own husband's funeral, Taylor was accompanied by singer and Philadelphia native Eddie Fisher, Todd's best friend, who was often on hand to comfort the grieving widow. (Photo: Babout, AP) At the time, Fisher was in a somewhat strained marriage with movie sweetheart Debbie Reynolds, and the couple had two children, Carrie (who would become Princess Leia) and Todd Fisher (named for Mike Todd).

The crooner's friendship with the widowed Taylor soon reached scandalous proportions when it was revealed that the two were having a love affair. After a very public breakup, in which Reynolds was portrayed in the press as the "wronged" woman, Fisher divorced Reynolds and married Taylor in 1959. Local History: Infamous Hurricane Hazel hits Vineland The two subsequently divorced in 1964 and Taylor began the first of two marriages to actor Richard Burton. In 2001, with Eddie long out of both of their lives, Reynolds and Taylor first appeared together in "These Old Broads," a television movie written by Carrie Fisher. 1 CONNECT TWEET LINKEDIN COMMENTEMAILMORE Read or Share this story: TOP VIDEOS

Question: To whom was Mike Todd married when he was killed in a plane crash in 1958?
Answer: ELIZABETH TAYLOR